November 2023. Paddington.
15 minutes in the lovely Monkey Puzzle left 65 minutes to get to the second new Paddington Guide pub and then find an interesting route back to Kings Cross, preferably without spending another penny on transport.
8 minutes takes you through Sussex Gardens and a warren of non-budget hotels.
The Mitre will cost you £369 for a double room on my birthday (22/12), basically the only date you need worry about.
Paddington looks great at dusk. Mrs RM did a “project” at Eastbourne Terrace in the ’90s when it was the centre of the NHS rather than the center of the Multiverse.
I don’t remember visiting any pubs apart from the Victoria back then, but if you only do one pub the Vic is as good as any.
The Bear isn’t the Victoria, and the very word “modern” may deter some readers, but it was wonderful.
And, as is often the case, it’s hard to say why.
A mixed crowd, really lovely staff (“There you go my love“), and the only way you could improve the beer range would be with a red triangle.
The Bear looks a bit like one of those smart Craft Beer pubs we know and sometimes loved, and indeed it is.
I’ve not really fallen in love with the Burton Bridge take on the Ind Coope classic, but this was sensationally cool and crisp and fruity (NBSS 4).
And those sort of booths contain your Bass memorabilia,
and this from a brewery that Stafford Paul will know.
And as I finished a second pint in quick time, this came on;
What more could you want ?
retiredmartin 
I’ve walked past that pub.
“a brewery that Stafford Paul will know” – no, I don’t.
“Up the junction” reminds me of the 1968 film starring Dennis Waterman whose father was a ticket collector at Clapham Junction railway station four miles south of Paddington. It’s a small world, as they say.
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I’ve never heard of Leney’s. Hope it’s not a fictional brewery invented in that Wrexham factory that makes brewery breweriana.
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I’ve looked it up and was in Dover with thirty pubs, acquired by Fremlins in 1926 and closed in 1927, so well before my time.
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Looks like a lovely pub. Squeeze reminds me of my childhood. I’m going to get tickets to see them again on their tour next year.
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Just been looking at one of those You Tube channels where Americans give a first reaction to hearing a song for the first time. They know “Hourglass” but had never heard “Up the Junction” !
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Your photo of that pint of Burton Ale is you best beer photo of 2023. Absolutely gorgeous.
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The pint is doing all the work there !
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…but your finger was on the trigger! So take some credit when it’s due
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Oh I will, you watch.
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Reading your account of the Bear reminded me that I hadn’t written my Pubs Galore review from my visit in January, on my way to my aunt’s funeral in Reading. Checking my contemporaneous notes I find that my beer at the Bear was also NBSS 4.0. https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/54700/
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Some consistent reports there, Will. Love your elaborate admission of possible bias !
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